


Soul Purpose

by myth_taken



Series: Denial 101 [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 12:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8014555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myth_taken/pseuds/myth_taken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tara is alive. She and Willow both go to L. A. to re-ensoul Angel, and they come back with one more than they bargained for. Spoilers for s4 of AtS and s7 of BtVS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soul Purpose

**Author's Note:**

> so this is going to be like. in the middle of a series where 1. tara never died, 2. fred gets the opportunity to be in the same room with tara because i want them to be gay, 3. there's some sort of tara/willow/fred going on, and 4. fuffy is canon. basically i'm gay and angry that all of my faves died. 
> 
> also: i tried not to use a lot of lines straight from the episodes (i hate fics that are just the same lines but some of them are spoken by different people), but there are some that are pretty similar. just so y'all know.

Willow put down the phone and called out to her girlfriend.

“Tara?”

Tara stood up and walked over to where Willow was standing. “Yeah?”

“I just got a call from a friend of Angel. I have to go to L. A.”

“Just you?” Tara took Willow’s hand and swung her arm back and forth. 

Willow looked at Tara. “It’s kind of complicated.”

“I can do complicated.”

A tiny smile appeared on Willow’s face. “Well, I could always use another witch.”

\--

“So what’s the deal?” Tara asked. They were in the car, soft music emanating from the speakers. Willow was driving, and Tara was trying her hardest with the map. “Don’t they have witches in L. A.?”

“Remember I was telling you about Buffy’s weird vampire ex-boyfriend?”

“Not-Spike?”

Willow laughed. “Angel. He lives in L. A. now. He’s basically the Buffy of L. A., what with all the demon killing and stuff. His friends had a really bad idea and took out his soul, and putting it back has historically been my job.”

“So, what, this has happened before?”

“I guess Miss My-childhood-wasn’t-riddled-with-demon-attacks wouldn’t know, huh.”

“I will if you tell me.”

“Angel gets some serious evil mojo when he loses his soul. If he’s ever perfectly, one hundred percent happy, his soul goes away, and then it’s bad, bad news for everyone else.”

“How did it get loose this time?”

Willow sighed. “Fred wasn’t very specific, but apparently they needed evil Angel for something.”

“Sounds promising.”

“I know, right?” 

\--

Willow pulled up next to an old hotel. “This is the address she gave me.”

“It’s a lot better than what we’ve got,” Tara noted.

“Think he’d let us borrow it? Take it back to Sunnydale?” Willow opened the door to the car and slid out. Tara followed, and they both approached the door.

“Do we just open it?” Tara asked.

“Might as well try,” Willow answered. She turned the handle, and the door opened onto a loud conversation involving… Faith’s old watcher? Him, and two people Willow didn’t know, although she recognized Fred’s voice. 

She and Tara stayed silent as they watched a boy advocate for killing Angel, and then they stepped forward.

“We don’t think so,” Willow said. Everyone turned to look at her. Wesley and the boy were both shocked, but Fred’s smile was enough to warm any heart. “We think you need witches.”

Everyone kept staring at them, but no one said anything.

“Um, is this a bad time?” Tara asked from behind Willow. “Because we can go if you want.”

The boy strode up to them. “You’re witches?”

“Yes,” Tara said. “You’ve never met one?”

“Childhood in a demon dimension doesn’t lend itself well to human witches.”

“I would imagine not,” Tara responded.

“You’re Angel’s son?” Willow asked.

Tara pulled Willow’s arm. “How does he have a son if he’s a vampire?” she whispered.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Willow whispered back. “I didn’t hear all of it.”

“Connor,” the boy said. 

“And the sneer’s genetic,” Willow answered. “Who knew?”

At this, Fred stepped forward. “Hi, Willow. Who’s your friend?”

Willow took Tara’s hand, pulling her forward. “This is Tara. She’s a witch, too. I can do the spell alone, but I can always use some more witchy help.” 

Tara smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Fred glanced at their joined hands, but she didn’t say anything except, “Nice to meet you too.”

Willow turned to Wesley. “And it’s everyone’s favorite Slayer-less Watcher! You’ve grown up a bit. Tara, this is Faith’s old Watcher. You remember Faith?”

“Well, actually,” Wesley said, “she’s here too.”

Tara glanced around. “Where?”

“In a bit of a coma at the moment, unfortunately. She was fighting Angelus.”

“Again?” Willow asked.

“If I am correct, she has never fought Angelus before,” Wesley answered.

Willow shook her head. “No, the coma. Another coma?”

“It seems to be so. What brings you here, Willow? And Tara? Was there a call of magic of some sort?”

“More like the call of Fred,” Willow said.

Wesley raised an eyebrow. “Of course. The only living person who’s re-ensouled Angel. And her witch friend.”

“I only called Willow,” Fred told him, “but two witches are better than one.” She turned back to Willow and Tara. “Assuming the others can spare you, of course.”

“They’re more about Slayers these days,” Willow said. “They’ll never miss a few days of witches.” She looked around. “Still, we’d better get to it. Where’s Cordy?”

“Recovering from Angelus shooting her with a crossbow,” Connor answered, pushing his way back into the circle. “She’s not up for visitors.”

“Oh, she’ll want to see Willow,” Wesley said. “They’re old friends.”

Willow and Tara looked at each other. “Friend is a strong word,” Willow said.

\--

They walked into Cordelia’s room behind Connor. Willow approached her bed, but Tara hovered by the door. Willow turned around. “It’s okay, Tara.”

Tara took a few hesitant steps, but she didn’t walk all the way to Willow.

“Hi, Willow,” Cordelia said. “And… friend of Willow.”

“Girlfriend, actually,” Willow said. 

“Who’d’ve thought? Willow Rosenberg, dating girls.”

“It’s revolutionary. You ought to try it. How’ve you been?”

“Higher power. You?”

“Ultimate evil. But I’m better now.”

“Always good to hear. So, you two really think you can get Angel’s soul back?”

“If we can find it,” Willow said.

“Apparently the jar it’s in is impervious to magic,” Cordelia answered. 

“I know. We tried a locator spell. Didn’t work.”

“Makes life harder.”

Tara stepped closer. “Willow? I’ve thought of something.”

Willow turned to face Tara. “Really? What is it?”

Tara glanced at Cordelia. “I’ll tell you later. I don’t want to interrupt your Cordelia bonding time.”

“No, it’s okay. Do we need to do a spell?”

Tara nodded. “Come on.”

Willow waved to Cordelia. “Bye, Cordy. Good luck with the gaping arrow wound.”

The instant they were out of the hotel room, Tara grabbed Willow’s hand and squeezed. 

“What’s wrong, baby?” Willow asked.

“Cordelia. She’s all wrong. Her energy is all distorted and broken. I think-- I think she’s hiding the jar.”

“We have to tell the others. So you want to get it back from her?”

“No. I think we can use an external magical force to break the jar.”

“Delothrian’s Arrow?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Willow stopped in her tracks. “Tara, that’s brilliant! You’re brilliant.”

\--

They sat in the hotel lobby, mixing the ingredients for their spell on the front desk. They worked in relative silence until Fred came up to them.

“Can I help?” she asked.

Willow and Tara looked at each other. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” Willow said.

“Do you want to grind this stuff up?” Tara asked. “There’s no way you can make it too small.”

“Okay,” Fred said, taking up the mortar and pestle. “So what are you two trying to do?”

“We’re going to harness the Delothrian energy around this ball,” Tara said, holding up a metal sphere. “There’s a lot of technical stuff around it, but basically it’s just going to smash the jar.”

“Wow. I wonder what that does to the physical form of the ball.” Fred kept grinding the mixture. “So how did you two get into witchcraft?”

“My mom was a witch,” Tara said. “She got me into it when I was really little.”

“My best friend’s a Slayer,” Willow said. “She’s a great fighter, but someone had to watch her back on the metaphysical plane.”

“You like physics, right?” Tara asked. “What’s that like?”

“Science wasn’t my best class in school,” Willow stage whispered. “I kept telling the teacher about the magical properties of things instead of the scientific ones.”

“Actually,” Fred began, “I’m very interested in how magic and physics interact. They must be connected somehow, of course, but I can’t quite figure out what connects them. I know that magical things can affect physical bodies, and physical bodies can affect magical things, and spells themselves follow certain laws, similar to the laws of physics, and I’m still working on several theories as to how that is, and, wow, I’ve really talked too much, haven’t I?”

Willow and Tara were both staring at her in awe. 

“No, you’ve talked a wonderful amount!” Willow exclaimed.

“Have you ever thought of being a witch?” Tara asked. “You understand the world in just the right way.”

“No, I’ve never considered going that far with it,” Fred said. 

“I think maybe you should,” Willow said. “You could come back to Sunnydale with us when this is over. We can teach you.”

“No pressure, of course,” Tara added.

Fred smiled. “I’ll think about it.”

\--

“Do you want to do some of the chanting?” Tara asked Fred. “Just to see what it’s like?” They had broken the jar, and Willow had resisted the tug of whatever power was trying to stop them. Willow and Tara knew they could go home soon, which wasn’t really all that comforting considering the even bigger apocalypse there, but at least it had a soft bed.

“Sure,” Fred answered, taking the ancient book from Tara’s hands. “You know, I don’t usually read these books. I feel like I’m going to mispronounce it.”

“Don’t worry,” Tara told her. “Most people mispronounce it, and their spells still go right.”

The spell did go right. Fred read beautifully, and Willow did her part as well, and Angel woke up as Angel, and Faith woke up as less evil than Willow remembered, and all that was left was to tie up the loose ends.

First, they had to tell Angel about Cordelia.

“I saw all this wrong energy in her,” Tara explained in his office, glancing around to make sure Connor wasn’t listening in. “There’s something bad growing inside.”

Angel nodded and promised to be careful, and Tara left his office, still on edge. 

They told Faith about everything going on in Sunnydale. Faith immediately agreed to return, and she trotted off to say goodbye to Angel. Fred, who had heard what Willow and Tara had told Faith, came out of some other room in the hotel, rambling about all the research that might help them in Sunnydale.

She stopped once she registered that no one was saying anything back. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be butting in on your apocalypse or anything.”

“No!” Willow smiled. “It’s actually really useful. Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us?”

“Well,” Fred smiled, “I guess I could, if y’all really think I could make it.”

“We know you could,” Tara said. 

“There’s room for one more in the car,” Willow added.

Fred grinned. “Okay, I’ll come with you!” She turned around to say goodbye to everyone else. After teary farewells, Fred and Faith bundled into the back of the car, and Tara drove away.

\--

“What’s that?”

“It’s a girl!”

“In the middle of the road?”

“Looks like.”

“Stop the car! We have to save her.”

The brakes screeched. The car stopped. Four people rushed out.

“Oh, no!” Fred turned the girl over. “She’s bleedin’ pretty badly. I think she needs a hospital.”

“We’d better get her there,” Faith said. “Come on. We’ll put her between me and Fred.”

They hauled the girl into the car, where Faith and Fred immediately began trying to bandage her with her own shirt. Soon enough, they were at the hospital, and the four of them stood on the wrong side of a glass wall, watching as doctors picked apart the girl’s wound.

“We should go tell Buffy what’s going on,” Willow said. “Dawn says she’s out patrolling, but she’ll be home soon. It’s probably better if three people of varying amounts of popularity to Buffy  _ don’t _ show up in a graveyard while she’s killing vampires.”

“I’ll stay here with the girl,” Tara said. “In case she wakes up, or if something happens to her.”

Willow nodded. “That’s probably best.” She glanced around the room, then gave Tara a quick kiss. “See you soon.” She led Faith and Fred out of the hospital and back into the car.

“So, I see the lesbianism is still going strong,” Faith noted.

“It’s also none of your business,” Willow answered. 

Faith shrugged. “Hey, I never said I had a problem with it. Had a few not-entirely-straight urges myself, back in the day.”

“Wait, really?” Willow caught herself trying to turn to face Faith, who was in the passenger seat. “Who?”

“Wouldn’t be a secret if I told you.” Fred looked behind her. “Anyway, Fred looks like she’s about to die of shock. Good little Texas girl never met a gay person before?”

“No,” Fred said. “I’ve met gay people. They’re just never this open about it.”

“There aren’t that many people left in Sunnydale,” Willow said. “If any of them care, they can just evacuate like the rest of the town.”

Fred laughed. “Anyway, I figured you and Tara were together. You fit just right.”

Willow beamed.

\--

They stood on the doorstep of Buffy’s house. Willow unlocked the door and pushed it open, and Faith pushed past her to see the house. “Huh. Hasn’t changed.”

“I think they’ve replaced most of the furniture,” Willow corrected. “And there are considerably more people living here now.”

Fred stepped through the door, looking around. To her right, there was a sort of living room. To the left, there was a girl lots younger than her and a man who looked to be about fifty.

The girl stepped forward, hands on her hips. “Faith?”

Faith stopped in her tracks, then put on a grin. “Yup. Any space for a wanted fugitive?”

“Might want to look around for someone who  _ wants _ to be betrayed.” The girl glared, and Willow stepped between her and Faith.

“Dawnie, it’s okay. Faith’s gotten better.”

“I’m on a streak. Three years without killing anyone. Pretty good, huh?” Faith raised her arms in the air in surrender. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on touching you.”

The girl backed up and turned to Fred. “Who’s she? New Potential?”

“This is Fred. She’s not a Potential Slayer. Just a potential witch.”

Fred stuck out her hand. “Hi. I won’t be a bother, I promise.”

“Well, you didn’t try to kill my sister.” The girl shook Fred’s hand. “I’m Dawn. Buffy’s sister.”

Just then, the door opened again, and everyone had to step out of the way. In walked Buffy, deflated, with Spike trailing after.

She stopped the minute she got in. “Whoa. What’s with the invasion?”

“It’s just two people,” Willow said. “Buffy, meet Fred.”

Buffy wasn’t listening. “Faith?”

Faith raised her hand. “Guilty as charged.”

“You’re back.” Her voice was flat. 

“I’m back. I already promised Dawn no murder, though.”

Buffy inspected Faith. “I’m holding you to that one.” She turned to Fred. “New Potential?”

“Just Fred, actually,” Fred said, sticking out her hand.

“Buffy.” Buffy shook.

“Tara and I believe that Fred would be a good witch,” Willow said, “and she’s incredibly useful with the research.”

“I’m from Angel Investigations,” Fred explained. “We help the helpless.”

“Lots of those around here,” Buffy said. 

“Angel says hi, by the way,” Willow said.

Buffy looked around. “So where’s Tara?”


End file.
